Invoice: Email Reminders Setup Guide - SAP Concur Training€¦ · 17/08/2019 · guide can be completed only by SAP Concur. In this case, the client must initiate a service request

Invoice: Email Reminders

Setup Guide

Last Revised: August 17, 2019

Applies to these SAP Concur solutions:

Expense Professional/Premium edition

Standard edition

Travel Professional/Premium edition Standard edition

Invoice

Professional/Premium edition

Standard edition

Request Professional/Premium edition

Standard edition

Invoice: Email Reminders Setup Guide i Last Revised: August 17, 2019 © 2004–2021 SAP Concur All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Section 1: Permissions ................................................................................................ 1

Section 2: Overview .................................................................................................... 1

Section 3: Configuration Process ................................................................................. 1

What the Employee Sees ............................................................................................. 2

Section 4: Email Reminders Tool ................................................................................. 3

Section 5: Configuring Email Reminder Rules .............................................................. 4

Before You Begin ........................................................................................................ 4

Pre-Defined Rules....................................................................................................... 4

Access Email Reminders .............................................................................................. 4

Create Reminder Rules ............................................................................................... 5

Copy Reminder Rules .................................................................................................. 7

Edit Reminder Rules ................................................................................................... 7

Delete Reminder Rules ................................................................................................ 7

Section 6: Configuring Email Reminders ...................................................................... 8

Create Email Reminders .............................................................................................. 8 Email Message Replacement Tokens ...................................................................... 12

Copy Email Reminders .............................................................................................. 13

Edit Email Reminders ................................................................................................ 13

Delete Email Reminders ............................................................................................ 14

Section 7: Scheduling Email Reminders ..................................................................... 14

Section 8: Localizing Email Reminder Text ................................................................ 14

Best Practices When Localizing Subject and Email Message Fields .................................. 14

ii Invoice: Email Reminders Setup Guide Last Revised: August 17, 2019 © 2004–2021 SAP Concur All rights reserved.

Revision History

Date Notes/Comments/Changes

February 17, 2021 Updated the copyright year; no other changes; cover date not updated

April 17, 2020 Renamed the Authorization Request check box to Request on the guide’s title

page; cover date not updated

January 6, 2020 Updated the copyright; no other changes; cover date not updated

August 17, 2019 Added a note to the description of the Email Message field stating that the

limit for emails that use the SAP Concur notification service is 10MB. Outgoing emails that have attachments larger than 10MB are not delivered.

February 9, 2019 Changed the term "Concur" to "SAP Concur" and changed "payment request"

to "invoice" where applicable, no other content changes.

January 29, 2019 Updated the copyright; no other changes; cover date not updated

July 3 2018 The Copy to Approver and Copy to Employee fields are updated to note that a copy of an email reminder may be sent to an approver or employee

April 6, 2018 Changed the check boxes on the front cover; no other changes; cover date not updated

January 10 2018 Updated the copyright; no other changes; cover date not updated

December 14 2016 Changed copyright and cover; no other content changes.

December 5 2016 Updated the Permissions section and guide content to new corporate style; no content changes.

June 17 2016 Added information about the Copy to Approver option.

March 18 2016 Updated the image of the email example; no other content changes

October 8 2015 Add more description for Once when condition is met

July 10 2015 Updated the information about Display as Form field for email reminders

May 15 2015 Updated the images to the enhanced UI and made general updates to the

content

March 16 2015 Clarified behavior of Number of Days setting option, and noted that there is a

limit of 2,000 characters for the Message Field option

November 30 2014 Integration Administrator has changed to Import/Extract Administrator; no

other content changes

September 16 2014 Added information about the two user interfaces; no other content changes

April 16 2014 Changed copyright and cover; no other content changes

November 8 2013 User can now draw on a toolbar and helper pane for tokens when writing

custom email reminder text

December 28 2012 Made rebranding and/or copyright changes; no content changes



Invoice: Email Reminders Setup Guide iii Last Revised: August 17, 2019 © 2004–2021 SAP Concur All rights reserved.

Date Notes/Comments/Changes

December 2009 Changed to stand-alone user guide; no content change

Section 1: Permissions

Invoice: Email Reminders Setup Guide 1 Last Revised: August 17, 2019 © 2004–2021 SAP Concur All rights reserved.

Email Reminders

Section 1: Permissions

A company administrator may or may not have the correct permissions to use this

feature. The administrator may have limited permissions, for example, they can affect

only certain groups and/or use only certain options (view but not create or edit).

If a company administrator needs to use this feature and does not have the proper

permissions, they should contact the company's Concur administrator.

In addition, the administrator should be aware that some of the tasks described in this

guide can be completed only by SAP Concur. In this case, the client must initiate a

service request with SAP Concur support.

Section 2: Overview

Email Reminders is a tool in the Invoice Configuration administrator used to set up email

messages to be sent on an interval basis to remind employees to act on a specific

action, such as:

• Overdue Disbursement: A company may want to enforce that a vendor is paid

within a certain amount of days.

• Approving: A company may want to enforce managers to approve invoices

within a certain amount of time as defined by the company.

Email reminders send the emails to the individual based on the time intervals set within

the configuration. For example, the email can be sent to an employee if the invoice was

submitted seven days ago and the approver has not approved it yet. The subject line

and text message that accompanies the email can be configured and localized.

Section 3: Configuration Process

The process for setting up for email reminders is as follows:

1. Create the rules: On the Rules tab of the Email Reminders page, create any

specific email rules for the reminder or use one of the default rules.

2. Create the configuration: On the Email Reminders tab of the Email

Reminders page, create a new configuration. Within this configuration, you will

assign the groups that this reminder will be sent to when the rules are violated.

3. Schedule the reminders: Email reminders are run when called from the

scheduling process that the system supports. Once it is scheduled, then any

email reminder created in the future is sent on that schedule. Scheduling email

reminders is done in the Import/Extract Administrator tool and is performed by

SAP Concur.

Section 3: Configuration Process

2 Invoice: Email Reminders Setup Guide Last Revised: August 17, 2019 © 2004–2021 SAP Concur All rights reserved.

NOTE: Scheduling requires a case to be submitted via Concur Client Services.

4. (Optional) If you have already localized the strings within the product and have

created a new email message, then you may have to send the new text to your

localization vendor for translation.

This process requires a case to be submitted via Concur Client Services to

extract the appropriate strings.

What the Employee Sees

The employee receives an email with the administrator configured subject line and

message text. This email alerts the employee that there is work or a new item awaiting

their action.

The Email Reminders page is used to configure this email.

Section 4: Email Reminders Tool


Section 4: Email Reminders Tool

The Email Reminders tool, located in Administration of Invoice, allows a Global and

Group Configuration administrator to create, edit, and delete email reminders by group.

Group Configuration administrators can only create, edit, and delete email reminders for

the groups to which they have access permissions.

The Email Reminders tool is visible if you have the Invoice Configuration administrator

(Restricted) role.

Section 5: Configuring Email Reminder Rules



Before You Begin

When creating an email reminder configuration, you must choose a rule that dictates

when that email is sent. The rules must be set up before you create the email reminder

or you must use one of the default rules that the system provides. The rules are set up

in the Rules tab of the Email Reminders tool. If you intend to use the default rules,

you do not have to create any new rules.

Pre-Defined Rules

The pre-defined rules are as follows:

• Overdue Payment Request Approvals: Invoices that have not been approved

within 7 days of submission of the invoice. The employee must be an active

employee.

• Overdue Payment Vendor Approvals: Vendor-based invoices that have not

been approved within 7 days of submission of the invoice. A vendor import must

be set up within the system to run before 7 days.

Access Email Reminders

To access Email Reminders:

1. Click Administration > Invoice.

2. Click Email Reminders (left menu). The Email Reminders page appears.



Create Reminder Rules

Group administrators can only create email reminder rules if given "create" rights. If

they do not have permissions, then the New button will not appear.

To create email reminder rules:

1. In Email Reminders, click the Rules tab.

2. Click New. The New Reminder Rule - Step 1 page appears.

3. Complete all required fields.

Field Description

Name Type a name of the email reminder configuration.



Field Description

Reminder Type Select the type that this email reminder applies to.

Reminder Type serves as a category for the rules that apply to that type as well as the action that the reminders are activated on:

• Approval Request - Payment Request: When an

invoice has a status of Pending Approval.

• Approval Request - Payment Vendor: When a vendor-based invoice has a status of Pending Approval.

• Payment Request: For invoices that have been approved and have not been both extracted and had the invoices marked as received.

These options categorize the rules for when creating an

email reminder, for example, if you choose Payment

Requests, then only the rules you created where the Reminder Type is Payment Requests will appear as rules from which you can select.

Selecting a type also filters the options available when creating the rule using the condition editor on the next page.

Editable By Select the group rights that an administrator must have in

order to modify this rule. • If you select Global Group, then the rule can be edited

or deleted by any employee assigned to administer the Global Group. All other administrators assigned at lower levels in the hierarchy can copy this rule, but not edit or delete it. Depending on your rights, you may not be able to select Global Group. You are only allowed to

select groups beneath you.

• If you select one or more groups in this field, such as Global Group>United States and Global Group>Europe, then the group administrator must have rights for both Global Group>United States and Global Group>Europe. Through inheritance, they will also have rights to edit

anything beneath United States and Europe. If the Invoice Configuration administrator only has rights for Global Group>United States, then this rule can only be viewed and copied. If the administrator has rights for one or more groups above Global Group>United States and Global Group> Europe, they would also have rights to both of these.

4. Click Next. The Conditions - Step 2 page appears.

5. Complete the condition for this rule:

Select the appropriate Data Object.

Select the Field/Value from the helper pane.

Select the appropriate Operator from the helper pane.

Select the next appropriate Data Object.

Select the Field/Value from the helper pane.



Continue these steps until the condition is created.

6. Click Finish. You are returned to the Rules tab.

Copy Reminder Rules

To copy rules:


2. Select the rule to copy, and then click Copy.

3. Edit the new copy using information from Creating Reminder Rules in this

document.

Edit Reminder Rules

Group administrators can only edit email reminder rules if given "create" rights. If they

do not have permissions, then the Edit Reminder Rule page will be read-only.

To edit email reminder rules:


2. Select the rule to edit, and then click Modify.

3. In the New Reminder Rule - Step 1 page make the desired edits.

4. Click Next, and, on the Conditions - Step 2 page, make the desired edits.

5. Click Finish.

Delete Reminder Rules

If a rule is deleted that is currently associated with an email reminder, it will deactivate

the email reminder. The email reminder will still exist but will not be active. If you want

to associate another rule with that email reminder, click the name of the email reminder

on the Email Reminders tab and select a new rule.

To delete email reminder rules:


2. Select the rule to delete, and then click Remove.

3. A confirmation message appears. Click Yes to dismiss the message.

Section 6: Configuring Email Reminders



A rule must be created before you create an email reminder, however, you can use one

of the default rules.

Create Email Reminders

To create email reminders:

1. In Email Reminders, click the Email Reminders tab.

2. Click New to open the Email Reminder window.

3. Complete all required fields.

Field Description

Name Type a unique name of the email reminder configuration.

Reminder Type Select the type that this email reminder applies to.

Reminder Type serves as a category for the rules that apply to that type as well as the action that the reminders are activated upon:

• Approval Request - Payment Request: When a cash advance request has a status of Pending Approval.

• Approval Request - Vendor Request: When a vendor-based invoice has a status of Pending Approval.

• Payment Request: For invoices that have been

approved and have not been both extracted and had the invoices marked as received.

Only the rules with this reminder type will appear in the

next field.

Reminder Rule Use the Reminder Rule helper to select a previously

created email reminder rule for the selected Reminder Type.

NOTE: The Email Reminder Rules section of this tool is used to create any new rules.



Field Description

Frequency Select how often you want this email to be sent once a rule

is violated:

• Daily (weekdays only)

• Daily

• Every x days

• Specific days of the month

• Once when condition is met NOTE: To ensure that reminders are sent according to the selected frequency, SAP Concur sets a "flag" whenever a reminder is sent. However, for performance

reasons, the flags are removed every 60 days. This means that a "once only" reminder could be sent once

every 60 days. To prevent recurrence of the reminder, SAP Concur recommends that you add a time- or status-based condition to the reminder rule (for example, add an additional condition on a date field like

Create Date and Within Today minus 59 – or use a status equal to the final workflow step).

NOTE: When an email reminder is sent, multiple occurrences of the same reminder for the same recipient are grouped together. For example, if an approver has

three invoices overdue for approval that are identified when the Overdue Approvals reminder is sent, the approver only receives a single email reminder for all three invoices rather than three separate reminders.

Number of Days This field appears only if you clicked Every x days in the Frequency field.

Enter the number of days since the last email reminder that

this email is to be sent.

NOTE: An email will be sent initially once the condition is met, then every “x days” as specified.



Field Description

Specific days This field appears only if you clicked Specific days of the

month in the Frequency field.

Type a valid integer between 1 and 31. Use > for the last day of the month. For example, 10, 20, > in the field would run the reminder on the 10th, 20th, and last day of the month.

Display as From Type the name you would like the recipient to see on the notification. The @ symbol is not permitted in this name.

NOTE: This name affects the display name only and does not affect the underlying email address of [email protected]

Email Subject Type the message that will appear as the Subject of the email message. There is a maximum of 255 characters.

Use the variables available in the Helper pane to make the subject line more dynamic. You must type the actual value, such as %3% in the line rather than select it from the Helper pane.

For more information, refer to the Email Message Helper section of this guide.

Email Message Type the message that appears in the body of the email up to 2,000 characters (double-byte characters are counted as

2 characters). TIP: If you are translating this message, be sure the original message translation does not exceed the limit when translated (the German language as a good example).

Use the variables available in the Helper pane to make the message more dynamic. You must type the actual value, such as %3% in the line rather than select it from the Helper pane.

For more information, refer to the Email Message Helper section of this guide.

NOTE: The limit for emails that use the SAP Concur notification service is 10MB. Outgoing emails that have

attachments larger than 10MB are not delivered.

mailto:[email protected]



Field Description

Copy to Approver Email reminders to the employee may optionally send a

copy of the reminder to the employee’s approver.

Select Yes to be able to send this email to this employee's default approver, in addition to the employee to whom the email pertains. If the email reminder is an approval invoice,

then the Copy to Employee setting appears, and the email is also sent to the employee for whom the invoice is requiring approval.

If you do not want to send an email reminder to the default approver, select No.

Copy to Employee Email reminders to the approver regarding pending

approval invoice may optionally send a copy of the reminder to the affected employees.

Click Yes or No to indicate if a copy is to be sent to

the employee represented in the item pending

approval.

IMPORTANT: Use caution with this option. If multiple

items are pending the approver, each one will be listed in the email reminder. The relevant employees will all be added as cc recipients of the email to the approver, and thus will view information about items from other employees that might not be appropriate visibility.

Copy to Email Address Type the appropriate email address. Multiple email addresses can be separated by a comma or a semicolon.

Editable By Select the group rights that an administrator must have in order to modify this reminder.

• If you select Global Group, then the reminder can be edited or deleted by any employee assigned to administer the Global Group. All other administrators assigned at lower levels in the hierarchy can copy this

reminder, but not edit or delete it. Depending on your rights, you may not be able to select Global Group. You are only allowed to select groups beneath you.

• If you select one or more groups in this field, such as Global Group>United States and Global Group>Europe,

then the group administrator must have rights for both Global Group>United States and Global Group>Europe. Through inheritance, they will also have rights to edit anything beneath United States and Europe. If the Invoice Configuration administrator only has rights for Global Group>United States, then this reminder can

only be viewed and copied. If the administrator has rights for one or more groups above Global Group>United States and Global Group> Europe, they would also have rights to both of these.

Applies to Select the groups that will be able to see this reminder. Only the groups that you select will have this reminder available to them. The groups below the selected groups do not have this reminder available.



Field Description

Active Select Yes to make this email reminder active. All email

reminders are inactive by default. The emails are not sent until this is set to Yes.

4. Click Save. The Email Reminders page appears and the reminder you just

created appears in the list.

Email Message Replacement Tokens

When creating an email message for a reminder, you can add dynamic text to the

subject line and the email message body text. When you are completing the Email

Subject and Email Message fields, a Helper pane appears to display the options you

have available. Below is an example of how those options are used on the Add Email

Reminder page. Table 1 provides a description of each option. You cannot click any of

these and have them appear automatically in the field. You must manually type the

variable in the location that you want that information to appear.



Table 1: Email Message Helper variable descriptions

Variable Label Name Description

%1% Logon URL The URL for the Concur Log On page.

%2% User Name The primary recipient of the email in this format: Firstname Lastname. This does not pertain to any Copy To recipients, such as approvers.

%3% Number of Records

The number of applicable object records, such as number of invoices, found by the reminder rule query, which is based on

the Reminder Type.

%4% List of Records A list of the applicable object records found by the reminder rule

query, based on pre-defined formats. This variable is not supported in the Email Subject field.

For more information how these fields would appear, refer to the Examples of List of Records section.

NOTE: These lists will be preceded and followed by a blank line

in the email body when inserted by the system.

The list of records for each Reminder Rule Type contain the following information in the email message:

• Approval requests: Fields based on the object to be approved, with the Employee Name as the last column.

• Payment Requests: Submit Date, Request Name, Amount,

Employee Name.

Copy Email Reminders

To copy reminders:


2. Select the email reminder to copy.

3. Click Modify to open the Email Reminder window. Make any necessary

changes.

4. Click Save. The new reminder will appear in the list.

Edit Email Reminders

Group administrators can only edit email reminders if given "create" rights from the

configuration checklist of the Invoice Configuration administrator. If they do not have

permissions, then the Edit Email Reminder page will be read-only.

To edit email reminders:


2. Click Modify to open the Email Reminder window.

Section 7: Scheduling Email Reminders


3. Edit the appropriate fields.

4. Click Save. The Email Reminders page appears and the reminder you just

created appears in the list.

Delete Email Reminders

To delete email reminders:


2. Select the email reminder to delete.

3. Click Remove.

NOTE: The change takes place immediately, so any employees violating this

email reminder rule will not be sent an email reminder once this email

reminder is deleted.

Section 7: Scheduling Email Reminders

Email reminders must be scheduled to run at certain intervals. If you already have email

reminders configured and you add a new email reminder, there is no need to update the

schedule. The new email reminder will run on the same email reminder schedule that

was set up prior.

If this is the first time you create email reminder configurations, you must set up the

schedule to run the email reminders. Depending on your company's implementation, you

may have to submit a case to Concur Client Services for assistance with this task.

Section 8: Localizing Email Reminder Text

Email Reminder Subject and Message text is not localized in the system automatically.

If you are creating email reminders for groups that access multiple languages, then you

should translate the subject and message text. The system can extract the necessary

strings for you to send to a localization vendor for translation.

Depending on your company's implementation of Invoice, you may have to submit a

case to Concur Client Services for assistance with extracting the strings.

Best Practices When Localizing Subject and Email Message Fields

When localizing, remember that there is a 2,000-character limit to the message in the

body of the email (the Email Message field). Since double-byte counts as 2 characters

you must factor this in translation. In addition, English to other languages typically adds

additional character counts (German as a good example), so this must also be

considered when creating the original message in English.

Section 8: Localizing Email Reminder Text


Documents

Invoice: Email Reminders Setup Guide - SAP Concur Training€¦ · 17/08/2019 · guide can be completed only by SAP Concur. In this case, the client must initiate a service request